Underneath the Clouds – Part II

A long time ago, much like today, when the voter in me has to choose between SAD, AAP and INC, my mother had confronted a situation not too dissimilar. To make us drink milk she had to pick between Complan, Boost and Bournvita.

Complan was out, as they had a small packing that could not redeployed to preserve pickle. I preferred Bournvita, as unbeknown to my little self, I had a soft spot for Latin. My mother preferred Boost because it was always five rupees cheaper. To bring me over to her side, she showed me this TV Advertisement with Kapil Dev drinking Boost, and she said, ‘If you drank Boost, you would also play for India one day.’

Man, did I drink Boost after that. I would a boost laden glass of milk two times a day, and sometimes ‘steal’ a spoonful of powder and devour it as well, usually before going out to play, and so did my friend, Gaurav, whose father had a ‘mithai’ shop, and so did my friend, Amit, whose father had a hardware repair shop, and so did the rest of the litter in the whole damn neighborhood.

And Guess what?

Gaurav runs the ‘mithai’ shop, Amit runs the hardware store, I am there, where exactly my father was at this age, and none of us became cricketer, no matter how much Boost we had.

But, over forty years ago, Prakash Singh Badal was running the state of Punjab, and today his son, Sukhbir Singh Badal is running the state of Punjab.

Now, we at Meradesh, do not have the kind of resources we would originally like to have, at least to cover this sensational election cycle but when a constantly inebriated elected politician and star campaigner starts to quote Chanakya, to a Punjabi crowd drugged with heroine, cheap homemade liquor and religion, you know he might be onto something.

The family runs transportation, resorts, media houses, and a big ass five-star (anything less would be shameful for these proud Punjabis) hotel, where rooms start at 25,000 per month and roads start only a few miles before the property.

So why the story about Boost? Because most of us invariably went on to do what our fathers did.

And much like that, our politicians and their children are doing the same, ripping off the common man, putting their hands in the other guy’s pocket.

Meanwhile, we are going to look around, copy paste, verify, and then bring to our readers a complete list of businesses owner directly by Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and his family.